Fee Waivers?

[Mystic_Fog]

I have a concern I've gotten mixed information about and I was wondering if anyone could help me out. So I'm a first generation college student and I've decided to apply to PhD programs. I'm only applying to about 5, but when i added up the cost of the app fees, I couldn't help but balk at the number. I'm sure for many people it's a reasonable number, but as someone who has completely supported themselves and their education with no support from family whatsoever since high school, it's a lot more than I have to spare. I've thought about applying for fee waivers, but the Career support center at my university cautioned against it, saying that it might lead me to be discriminated against and not admitted due to SES status. 

 

Is this a common occurrence or something I should be concerned about, or am I potentially worrying over nothing?  

[braindump]

I have never heard of anyone being discriminated against due to needing a fee waiver or even that this was a legitimate concern. I'm pretty sure it's common for applicants to get fees waivers as they need, especially if they got the reduced GRE fee. I got fees waived for almost all of the schools I applied to and I didn't see this hinder me at all in the process. Most of my application costs went toward the GRE and sending scores/transcripts. I'm wondering where the person who told you this got their information, or if they're just making assumptions.

[TakeruK]

I am sad to hear that you got such bad advice from your career support center. No, asking or receiving a fee waiver will not negatively impact your admission chances. The whole point of a school offering a fee waiver is because they want excellent students who cannot afford the high fees to apply. It's an application incentive, not a punishment! If they are going to use fee waivers as a way to encourage applicants but at the same time, hold it against you, that would be incredibly silly!

At my school, we are very supportive about granting fee waivers. You can get fee waivers for tons of different reasons, including yours. Most schools make basically zero money on application fees--it's not really a source of income. I'm at a top 10 school and I know that many people who might be very good are hesitant to apply here because to be honest, even if you are a great student, the chances of getting into any particular top program is low. So, some very intelligent and bright students who are first gen students and/or have supported themselves and/or have other costs and/or have financial trouble might decide that applying to my school is not worth the "return on investment" due to the high cost and high risk. This sucks! We don't want to lose out on excellent minds like this, so we have a very generous fee waiver program that attempts to encourage applicants to apply. 

However, almost every program will require you to ask for the fee waiver--it's not going to be automatically applied. You'll have to talk to the right office (often the Diversity office) and you'll get information on how to waive the fee. Since the fee payment is kind of separated from the application materials itself, it's unlikely the admissions committee will even know if you paid the fee or got a waiver.

[Mystic_Fog]

Thank you both for your wonderful responses. I think it doesn't help that she spent the first few years of her career working for a public for-profit university. It didn't make much sense to me, but I didn't want to dismiss her words of advice. Needless to say, it was causing me serious stress about applying to grad school because I'd been hesitant to apply for waivers but I have assurance it won't matter, which is a huge relief! 

[ballwera]

There are a number of schools that offer free admissions to everyone, Vandy and WashU come to mind.Be sure to apply to those as well. Also look at each department you apply to, some have waivers that are independent of the admissions office. Good Luck!

[stillalivetui]

You may consider researching into these schools and seeing if they are of interest to you. You can obtain a fee waiver via the CIC program.

More information is here: https://www.cic.net/students/freeapp/introduction

[Mystic_Fog]

Wow thank you both! I'll be sure to look into these!